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Writer Jason Aaron has crafted an impressive run on various volumes of Marvel Comics’ Thor over the last few years. He can do no wrong when it comes to the God of Thunder, and he proves that by using one of the publisher’s Generations-themed one-shots to examine what makes our two Thors (the original and currently “Unworthy Thor” and the Jane Foster “Mighty Thor”) worthy. RELATED: Generations: Thor Lays Fiery Groundwork for Marvel Legacy #1 Joining Aaron on Generations: Unworthy Thor & Mighty Thor #1 are artist Mahmud Asrar, colorist Jordie Bellaire and letterer Joe Sabino. It’s great to see Asrar and Bellaire team up for a Thor story. Some of Asrar’s line work lacks detail in wider shots, with one instance being a room full of Asgardian figures ranging from Valkyrie to the Warriors Three. It may be a deliberate artistic choice, to allow Bellaire’s colors to shine through — and it doesn’t take away from how impressive some full-page layouts of both Thors turn out. One example is

Ghost Station Zero #1 continues the premise of writer Antony Johnston and artist Shari Chankhamma’s previous Codename Baboushka comics — what if the story was about the femme fatale super spy, and not the James Bond-type she sleeps with? — and dives deeper into Baboushka’s Russian connections and history. What Cold War secrets are lying in wait for this icy blonde badass? While Ghost Station Zero continues Baboushka’s story, it’s a standalone miniseries and a great jumping on point for new readers. Starting in media res during a mission in China, in which Baboushka saves women from the sex slave trade and punishes their captors, it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly who Baboushka is and what she does for a living. Working with her handler Gyorgy, she makes a daring escape that I won’t spoil and continues on to her next mission as if it were no big deal. Aren’t all escapes from murderous gangsters daring, you ask? Maybe, but this is a truly beautiful escape; Chankhamma’s illustration

Before Marvel enters into a new publishing era with Marvel Legacy, the company is publishing 10 Generations one-shots that introduce a newer iteration of an established superhero to their original counterpart. The first issue is Generations: Banner Hulk & The Totally Awesome Hulk #1 from the creative team of Greg Pak, Matteo Buffagni, Dono Sanchez-Almara and Cory Petit. Taken by itself, it’s a fine issue that answers the question of what happens when you toss Amadeus Cho’s free-spirited Hulk into the past to cross paths with Bruce Banner’s decidedly more pessimistic Hulk. Problems arise when the reader tries to patch together exactly where and when around the current Secret Empire saga these events take place. RELATED: What Generations: Hulk Tells Us About Marvel’s Legacy Plan Since the time Amadeus embraced all that comes with being a Hulk, fans haven’t had the opportunity to see him interact with his “big brother” until now. In that sense, Generations: Banner Hulk & The Tot

Image Comics’ new series Generation Gone is about the future, but the science-fiction comic isn’t set in the far flung. In fact, you’ll recognize its setting as practically identical to our own. Its characters live in a surveillance state, bogged down by the cost of health care, student loans, racial disparity and middle-class malaise. But writer Ales Kot and artist André Lima Araújo are nonetheless focused on the idea of the future — namely, who has the right to it. Millennials have had the future stolen from them, Kot suggests. They’re on the verge of stealing it back. That’s a paraphrase from Mr. Akio, the shadowy government contractor whose behind the scenes actions launch Generation Gone into motion. Part Elon Musk, part J. Robert Oppenheimer, he’s working on mechanized weapons technology for the US government. His ambition is rooted elsewhere, in something called Project Utopia. “Everything in the world is code,” Akio explains to a board of government operatives. From computer

While “Batman” #22 serves as the penultimate chapter of the Watchmen-fueled storyline “The Button,” Joshua Williamson and Tom King’s story focuses more The Batman, or more specifically, the Batmen. Readers of the previous chapter (presented in “Flash” #21) discovered that both Batman and Flash found themselves back in the Batcave at issue’s end – that is, the Batcave from the reality of “Flashpoint,” where the man underneath the cowl is not Bruce Wayne, but his father, Thomas. Drawn by Jason Fabok, Williamson and King’s story sets up a unique confrontation between father and son, both of whom each still grieve for the other, with the circumstance carrying the potential to give Bruce closure that’s long been denied him. As executed by the entire creative team, the issue is an emotionally powerful reunion spanning alternate histories, serving as a moving and long-delayed epilog to the origin of both Batmen. RELATED: Comedian’s Button Is More Than Just Flair; Does [SPOILER] Hate The DCU

Holy crossover, Batman! “Batman ’66 Meets Wonder Woman ’77” is the best of DC Comics’ television team-ups yet! Energetic, witty, and true-to-character, the series’ first issue (collecting the first several chapters of the digital comic) is a master class in how to have fun in comics. The creative team obviously understands the characters, placing them in a decades-spanning story that employs a deeper plot construction than ever considered for the TV shows, while including campy (but fun) elements like Robin’s “Holy ____!” catchphrases and a cliffhanger ending. Let’s face it: you know good things are in store when a Bat-title begins with Eartha Kitt’s purr-fectly in-character Catwoman stealing a rare book for Talia al-Ghul. The theft sets the Caped Crusader off on a nostalgic adventure, and the story shifts to the day that young Bruce Wayne met Wonder Woman during World War II. The rare book in question is part of a two-volume set being auctioned at an event held at stately Wayne mano

The cast of Marvel’s latest major event thins in “Civil War II” #7, the now-penultimate issue of Brian Michael Bendis and David Marquez’ story that’s poised to reshape the Marvel Universe. The Inhuman Ulysses’ powers continue to evolve, taking him to a surprising place — and time — unknown to him, while a showdown takes place near issue’s end, although not necessarily the one readers would have expected just yet. The smaller cast allows Bendis to elevate the tension on a more personal level, and in doing so he and Marquez put together a stronger issue than those seen in the crowded and uneven early half of the series, building on the game-changing moment revealed in Ulysses’ most shocking premonition of all. RELATED: Civil War II #8 Cover Teases Iron Man’s Final Fate Just in case readers forgot the horrific mental image that Ulysses broadcast into many of Marvel’s heroes’ minds two issues ago, Marquez and Ponsor’s double-page spread of Miles Morales standing over a murdered Captain A

It’s been a while since Josie and the Pussycats got much attention, but — after Archie Comics introduced them as a trio of vampires in “Afterlife with Archie” #10 — they’re back under the spotlight, albeit for a more traditional reimagining. In keeping with the publisher’s other modernized relaunches, Marguerite Bennett, Cameron DeOrdio and Audrey Mok’s “Josie and the Pussycats” #1 falls right in line with the spirit of the other titles; the characters feel like natural, stylish extensions of their traditional incarnations, yet remain true to their long-established personalities. The original Archie house style comfortably dominated the look of the entire Archie cast for decades, so the publisher has faced the same challenge for every one of its character revamps: to come up with a distinct style for each, while keeping them all tied together and recognizable. Like other artists have done for the new “Archie,” “Jughead” and “Betty and Veronica,” Mok comes up with her own unique, mode

Six issues into James Tynion IV’s “Rise of the Batmen” arc, “Detective Comics” #939 impressively reignites the battle against Batwoman’s father, rogue U.S. Army Colonel Jacob Kane. Batman and crew had all but defeated Kane and his covert team known as the Colony last issue, but a last-minute technological rabbit pulled from the proverbial hat widens the scope of the conflict as it rages forward. All the while, Eddy Barrows and Eber Ferreira beautifully illustrate four of the six parts thus far, while Alvaro Martinez and Raul Fernandez competently step up to give the pair a break in issues #936 and #937. Barrows, Ferreira and colorist Adriano Lucas grab readers’ attention as soon as the story arc kicks off, as a battered Azrael is taken down by a figure who appears to be Batman. The carefully crafted layouts and gorgeous colors perfectly accentuate Tynion’s tense and compelling intro and carry through the remainder of the storyline. Additionally, Martinez’s layout style aligns with Ba

I’ll admit that the solicit for “All-New, All-Different Avengers Annual” #1 had me a little nervous. When mainstream properties take on fan fiction, it’s often a way for “legitimate” fiction to belittle “illegitimate” fiction as sillier or inherently inferior. Luckily, “All-New, All-Different Avengers Annual” #1 takes a heartening approach to the subject. The creators manage to poke fun at fan fiction’s more lurid, wish-fulfillment elements without letting the reader forget that Marvel and DC superhero stories — with their power fantasies, time-warping plot twists and use of licensed characters — are very much on the same spectrum as fan fiction, as every creator at the Big Two gets to put their own twist on characters and worlds that someone else invented. What, then, is the problem with fan fiction? “All-New, All-Different Avengers Annual” #1 has a lot of fun suggesting that this isn’t always a question of quality, as many critics would have you believe. Instead, it’s a question of